Sequence Analysis of SSR-Flanking Regions Identifies Genome Affinities between Pasture Grass Fungal Endophyte Taxa.

ABSTRACT: Fungal species of the Neotyphodium and Epichloë genera are endophytes of pasture grasses showing complex differences of life-cycle and genetic architecture. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers have been developed from endophyte-derived expressed sequence tag (EST) collections. Although SSR array size polymorphisms are appropriate for phenetic analysis to distinguish between taxa, the capacity to resolve phylogenetic relationships is limited by both homoplasy and heteroploidy effects. In contrast, nonrepetitive sequence regions that flank SSRs have been effectively implemented in this study to demonstrate a common evolutionary origin of grass fungal endophytes. Consistent patterns of relationships between specific taxa were apparent across multiple target loci, confirming previous studies

SUBMITTER: van Zijll de Jong E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3042632 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature